Lipton Tea...

Hello!  I have some new teas to share with you.

First, is American Tea Lemonade from the Tea's Travel series:

Now my memory might not be perfect but I'm pretty sure this is the exact same recipe as 50/50 Tea Lemonade.  Now I'm not complaining, of course.  That was one of my favorite teas.  This one is no different.  Delicious!

Next is Hojicha Latte:

Hojicha is roasted green tea.  This was tea was actually pretty good and the more I sipped it, the more it grew on me. 

Win/win for these two teas.

In other tea news Earl Grey Milk Tea is back on the shelves.  This is the first tea I've seen recycled since I've been here (now 1 year and 8 months).

The list:

1. Milk Tea
2. Maple Milk Tea
3. Lemon Tea
4. Peach Tea
5. Earl Grey Milk Tea
6. Green Apple Tea
7. 50/50 Tea & Lemonade
8. Tropical Fruit Tea
9. Chamomile Citrus Tea
10. Roast Milk Tea
11. Jasmine Lemon Peel
12. Grape Tea
13. Straight Tea
14. Apple Tea
15. 50/50 Tea & Fruit Punch
16. Matcha Milk
17. Tea Cappuccino
18. Mikan Tea
19. 50/50 Tea & Nectar
20. Luxurious Milk Tea
21. Muscat Tea
22. Plum Honey
23. Cream Milk Tea 
24. Grapefruit Tea
25. Orange Marmalade Tea 
26. Royal Milk Tea
27. Golden Pineapple Tea
28. Italian Fruit Punch Tea
29. Honey Milk Tea
30. Green Apple with Honey
31. Thailand Lychee Tea
32. Sweetened Condensed Milk Tea 
33. Turkey Apricot Tea
34. Milk Caramel Tea
35. Navel Orange Tea
36. French Pear & Apple Tea
37. Creamy Milk Tea
38. American Tea Lemonade
39. Hojicha Latte

The Top Five:

1. OG Milk Tea
2. 50/50 Tea Lemonade
3. 50/50 Tea & Fruit Punch
4. 50/50 Tea & Nectar
5. Jasmine Lemon Peel

Some clothes...

Hey!  Here's some clothes!

February 11th:

February 19th:

February 21st:

February 22nd:

February 24th:

February 25th:

February 26th:

That's all!

A vegetarian foodie in Japan...

Is winter over yet?  I'm really tired of the bitter cold.  I want to feel the sunshine on my face.  I want summer.  Believe or not I'm excited that it will be in the 50s this week.  I have made some super delicious things but I got into a fight with my internet and it refused to work.

Anyway, on the the food!

I made some borscht.  It was good but then I left it out all night and I'm afraid it was no good after that.

I made the best pumpkin soup ever!

It was so unbelievably tasty!

I made a veritable Valentine's Day feast for my boyfriend:

Recipes are here.  Everything was, of course, awesome,

Here's the dessert I made:

I made a to-die-for grilled cheese.  Seriously, never making it the regular way again.

That's all!  Happy eating!

A vegetarian foodie in Japan...

Wow, okay, so I've been trying to write this blog since this morning but my internet keeps saying no.  I guess since it snowed yesterday the internet just gave up.

Anyway, I made some things, so here ya go!

Coconut "Chicken"

So Japan has this super great soy meat.  It takes forever to prepare but the result is awesome.  Anyway, I modified this recipe.  I also found that the soy meat doesn't need as long to cook as chicken.  I will definitely make this again.

Nutella Brownies:

Of course these were excellent.  Pretty much goes without saying.

Vegetarian Chipotle Nachos:

I already bought all the stuff to make these again.  'Nuff said!

I tried my hand at homemade cottage cheese.  It was easier than I thought but it takes a lot of milk and produces just a little cheese.

The first picture is before I added the milk and salt, the second is after.  It's very good.

I made a Snickers dessert:

Basically take a mini Snickers bar, wrap it in a wonton wrapper and fry it.  Yum!

I made Pasta with Pumpkin Cream Sauce:

This was better the second day after flavors melded a little better.

I also indulged in Coconut French Toast:

I can't even tell you how delicious this was.  Just make it for yourself!

In Adventures in Dining my bf and I tried out Biokura Cafe:

It's hard to find but this was for sure the best burger I've ever had in Japan.  Must go back there.

We had tea and cakes at Janat:

Their set up is so beautiful and the tea was delicious.

And my bf bought me a vegetarian bento box:

So yummy!

That's all.  This took too long.  Happy eating!

節分。。。

Today is 節分 which marks the start of spring though it's hard to see it when there is snow in the forecast for this week.

節分 and 豆撒き in addition to welcoming spring are supposed to drive bad luck and poor health out of the household thus welcoming good fortune into the house.

I notice a lot of change in the world right now.  It seems to fall in line with the spirit of 節分 and that's good.  There are birthday celebrations, engagements, pregnancies, babies being born, and people changing jobs.  All of these are natural every day occurrences, of course, but I see them happening in bulk on my Facebook news feed.

I'm happy for those welcoming beautiful changes with this coming spring.  As of right now I have no welcome change to report.  My life (I don't want to say stagnant because that has a negative connotation), it flows slowly and steadily with no major peaks.  There have been some dips but I don't want to get into those now lest I have to relive those difficult moments again.

I don't really have a point here, I guess.  To my friends, I am happy for your joyful life changes.  If you haven't had a happy change then I hope some joy comes to you this year in some way.